An Aurundel Tomb- Time Flashcards
Overall
-time is presented as an inevitable force that both erodes and preserves leaving behind an ambiguous legacy.
- uses the stone effigies of an earl and contest to depict the impact of time on love and how it ultimately isn’t real
“Side by side their faces blurred”
“Vaguely shown”
- opening line, introduced to the stone countess and earl ‘..’
- the figures seems fixed and enduring yet their faces are softened by time hinting at the gradual dissolution of their identity’s
-‘blurred’ and ‘vaguely shown’ suggests that what was once sharply defined has faded emphasising the fragility if physical forms in the face of times passage
-cesura contribute to the stanzas sense of building anticipation creating little pauses as new details are added about the tomb.
-pause right before “sharp tender shock” creates one final moment of tension before the speaker reveals that the couples is depicted as holding hands
“ jointed armour” “stiffened pleat”
-suggests that while it was intended to project permanence they are now outdated ad also comical “faint hint of the absurd”
-foreshadows Larkins critique of how time distorts human intentions and efforts to memorialise
- archaic language
“One sees, with sharp tender shock… his hand withdrawn,holding her hand”
-unexpected moment of intimacy in the formal aristocratic imagery
- simple detail is touching poignant, standing out from the formalities and solemnity
-“sharp tender shock”- felt by the observed over emphasises the timeless quality of human affection which cuts through the stuff needs and formality that time has otherwised imposed on the scene
-the sh sound have a sort of tenderness and sharpness all at once
-being used for the first time in the poem may come as a surprise to the reader mimicking the speakers surprise
“A sweet commissioned grace”
-however this implies it was the sculptors addition
- intended to add beauty rather than to immortalise their lov3
-time therefore transforms the gesture of closeness into a symbol of enduring love that outlasts its original purpose
“Such faithfulness in effigy’
In the fricative alliteration Larkin emphasises the gradual shift from genuine memory to impersonal curiosity over Time
- suggests the sculptors weak was never intended as an eternal testament of fidelity it was just a detail ‘friends see’
A minor touch to satisfy social and aesthetic expectations
- but over time this incidental feature becomes a defining attribute, transforming the couples legacy into a symbol of love
-Larkin shows how time distorts intention
- effigies themselves become a symbolic valued for what they come to represent rather than the individuals themselves
“Stationary voyage” “ soundless damage “snow feel undated”
-suggests the relentless passage of time that subtlety silently erodes both the physical sculptures and the human memory associated with them.
-seasons change, light fills the cathedral and people visit but the couples remain unmoving
‘Linked through lengths and breadths of time”
“Endless altered people”
-emphasis of cycle of life continuing around them underscoring the way in which the world moves on indifferent to individuals histories
- reveals that the world around it is in constant state of change because people no longer see it th same way
- despite the tombs intended function as a kind of permanent memorial any permemnace it has is due to its merely being a stone object
-its original meaning or significant has proven fleeting
“Bone riddled ground”
-subtly evokes mortality hinting at many who have died since the couples own time and the impermanence that touches all living things.
-consonance linked life and death subtly suggesting how much time has passed since the tomb was built
-long enough for life to turn to death many times over for the ground to be riddles
“Time has transfigured into.. untruth”
-Larkin conveys that Time does not simply preserve, it changes the very meaning of what it has kept
- what the have come to symbolise a fabrication
-real people and intentions is lost in the past and forgotten in the past and forgotten to time
“ what will survive of us is love”
- conclusion is both hopeful and ambiguous
Love endure but perhaps in a stylised symbolic form rather than as an active or remembered reality - Larkin was said to regret this line unclear what he meant and remains ambiguous.
Context
Larkin and Monica Jones took a trip to the cathedral in Chichester and saw the memorial
- Larkin found it affecting and later expressed disappointment when he found out that the linked hands were a later unhistoical addition
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“That air would change to a soundless damage”
-such at the power and relentlessness f Tim that even air becomes a destructive forces overdoing stone and making the identities of the earl an counties more remote
“To look not read’
-once upon a time people would go to the memorial to mourn
-soon the enscription on the room just became something people would look at rather than rea
- the tomb began to lose its intended meaning as a place for people to pay respect too and instead has become a more detached objet, a kind of historical curiosity
